Computing networks can include multiple network devices including network devices such as routers, switches, hubs, and computing devices such as servers, desktop PCs, laptops, workstations, mobile devices and peripheral devices, e.g., printers, facsimile devices, and scanners, networked together across wired and/or wireless local and/or wide area network (LANs/WANs).
High Availability (HA) is a mode of operation for networks where redundant components are used to reduce service outage. In current blade server/switch environments networks are used having Fiber Channels (FCs) and/or Fiber Channels over Ethernet (FCoE) connections according to existing backbone 5 (BB5) standard and backbone 6 (BB6) draft standards currently under development, e.g., compliant converged network adapters and control plane software. Currently the cost of high availability in FC/FCoE networks, measured in terms of the number of nodes, increases linearly with the number of switches (e.g. “N”) in an HA cluster.